Guenièvre
Selon P.A. Karr...
Arthur first saw Guenevere when he went, with his allies Kings Ban and Bors, to rescue her father King Leodegrance of Cameliard from King Ryons. When Arthur's barons insisted he take a wife, he told Merlin:
I love Guenever the king's daughter Leodegrance of the land of Cameliard, the which holdeth in his house the Table Round that ye told he had of my father Uther. And this damosel is the most valiant and fairest lady that I know living.
He insisted on marrying her, despite Merlin's warning that she would have Lancelot for a lover. Leodegrance sent Arthur the Round Table, along with a hundred knights, as a wedding gift.
When Arthur prepared to go and meet the five invading kings of Denmark, Ireland, the Vale, Soleise, and the Isle of Longtains, he took Guenevere along on the campaign, saying that she would cause him "to be the more hardy" and promising to keep her safe. While they were camped beside the Humber, the invading kings attacked by night. Arthur, Kay, Gawaine, and Griflet tried to get the Queen over the Humber River to safety, but the water was so rough that they were afraid to pass over. Now may ye choose, said King Arthur, whether ye will abide and take the adventure on this side, for an ye be taken they will slay you. It were me liefer, said the queen, to die in the water than to fall in your enemies' hands and there be slain.
At Kay's urging and example, the four men slew the five invading kings who were bearing down on them, for which Guenevere praised Kay greatly and promised to bear his fame among the ladies.
Malory records that Guenevere "made great sorrow ... and swooned" at the departure of her husband and his men for their continental war with the Emperor Lucius, and that she came to meet him at Sandwich on his return.
As Arthur had his Knights of the Round Table, Guenevere had her own company, the Queen's Knights, who carried white shields; at first, the Queen's Knights were apparently made up of youthful aspirants to the Table, but eventually there seems to have been considerable over lapping in the membership of the two companies. Malory is unclear on when and how Guenevere and Lancelot became more to each other than she was to all of her knights, but by the time Lancelot slew Turquine and Peris de Forest Savage, gossip was already hot enough that the damsel who guided the great knight to Peris could mention it to his face, while by the time Tristram and La Beale Isoud gave in to their passion, the relationship was sufficiently established and known that Isoud could send Palomides to Arthur's court charging him
there recommend me unto Queen Guenever, and tell her that I send her word that there be within this land but four lovers, that is, Sir Launcelot du Lake and Queen Guenever, and Sir Tristram de Liones and Queen Isoud.
Perhaps Guenevere shows to her worst advantage in this long, stormy love affair. Lancelot called forth her jealousy in a way that Arthur seems never to have done (although, ironically, Arthur probably deserved her jealousy more, Lancelot being drawn into side affairs and appearances of affairs through trickery and misfortune). She accepted Lancelot's explanation of the engendering of Galahad and forgave him, but later, when Elaine of Carbonek tricked Lancelot into her bed at Arthur's court itself, within earshot of Guenevere's own room, the Queen's rather understandable fury drove Lancelot mad. While he wandered out of his wits she spared no expense to find him, financing the knights who went out searching, so that when Percivale and Ector de Maris finally found him at Joyous Isle, Percivale could say that "I was sent by the queen for to seek you." The affair seems to have become even more tempestuous after the Grail Quest. Lancelot quickly forgot the vow he had made dur ing the holy adventures to break it off with Guenevere—Malory's word ing seems to put the responsibility for the resumption of the affair more on Lancelot than on the Queen—but he also became more careless about secrecy. When he realized the scandal they were causing and began championing as many ladies and damsels as possible to throw the gossips off the scent, Guenevere waxed angry and jealous again, speak ing to him so hotly that he followed his cousin Bors' advice and left court again, hiding with the hermit Sir Brasias at Windsor until the Queen should repent her words and want him back.
It was at this time that Guenevere held a "privy dinner" for twenty- four other knights of the Round Table, to show that she took joy in all of them—at which dinner Sir Patrise of Ireland died of a poisoned apple meant for Gawaine.
Guenevere was accused of the crime, reproached by Arthur himself for being unable to keep Lancelot at hand when she needed him, and driven to beg Sir Bors to champion her in Lancelot's place; Lancelot, mean while, secretly informed of the situation by Bors, laid low and let Guenevere stew, not showing up until the very last minute. Shortly after this incident, Lancelot tried to stay in London with the Queen while the rest of the court went to Winchester for a great tournament. This time Guenevere told Lancelot to leave her and attend the tournament, lest their enemies use the occasion for further scandal. "Madam", said Sir Lancelot, "I allow your wit, it is of late come since ye were wise."
Somewhat illogically, after accepting Guenevere's reasoning, he went to Winchester in disguise, and his wearing of the favor of Elaine of Astolat in the lists led to another jealous rift, which was not quite healed until Elaine's death bore testimony to Lancelot's avoidance of sexual entan glement with her. In justice, Guenevere seems genuinely to have pitied the dead Elaine. She also prudently insisted that from now on Lancelot wear her favor in tournament, to avoid such injury as he sustained at Winchester when his kinsmen, not knowing him, ganged up on him. Guenevere shows to better advantage in the • adventure of Sir Meliagrant, which Malory (or his first editor, Caxton) places after the last-mentioned incidents, but which probably occurred earlier. When Meliagrant and his men ambushed Guenevere and her party while they were out a-Maying, she kept her head; seeing her ten unarmored knights outnumbered, defeated, and wounded, she surrendered rather than let them be slain, even calling on the four who were still on their feet to leave off fighting, since it was hopeless. She managed, however, to slip her ring to a child of her chamber and send him back to Lancelot. When Lancelot arrived and cowed Meliagrant, Guenevere seems to have pro moted the cause of peace and truce, though she prudently insisted that, as long as they remained in Meliagrant's castle, her wounded knights should be put in her own chamber so that she could be sure they received the best treatment. Lancelot came to her at the garden window that night, injured his hands in pulling out the window bars to get in, and so left blood in her bed, giving Meliagrant the chance to accuse her of lying with the injured knights. Again Lancelot had to fight her trial by combat to save her from burning, and this time she "wagged her head ... as though she would say: Slay [Meliagrant]", which may have been more prudence than bloodthirstiness and was certainly understandable, all things considered.
When cornered at last together in the Castle of Carlisle by Mordred, Agravaine, and their dozen knights, Lancelot offered, after slaying thir teen of the attackers and driving Mordred away wounded, to take Guenevere with him at once to safety. She, however, refused to go, probably hoping that the good of the court might yet be salvaged, telling him only that if he saw they would burn her, then he might rescue her as he thought best. Most modern versions depict Arthur as being forced with a heavy heart to bow to the righteousness of the law in sentencing Guenevere, but a close reading of Malory and the Vulgate version gives the impression of what might be called a kangaroo court, save that the King himself was presiding, with Arthur seeming to rejoice in the law (though it is just possible his rage was less for Guenevere's inconstan cy than for the deaths of his thirteen knights) and hotly refusing Gawaine's plea to allow Lancelot to fight a trial by combat yet again and prove their innocence—which would, of course, have averted the final catastrophe. Indeed, Arthur apparently forbade any trial by combat at all and, far from hoping that Lancelot would come to the rescue, as in T. H. White's version, seems to have tried to burn her at once, before Lancelot got his chance. Guenevere probably never knew that even Lancelot had seemed to falter a little in his resolve to save her: talking the matter over with his kinsmen, he said
and this night because my lady the queen sent for me ... I suppose it was made by treason, howbeit I dare largely excuse her person, notwithstanding I was there by a forecast near slain.
Despite Arthur's attempt to burn her, she returned to him and showed herself a loyal wife and prudent queen while he was overseas besieging Lancelot. She was not taken in by Mordred's forged letters purporting that Arthur was dead, but she pretended to agree to marry Mordred, thus getting him to let her go to London, supposedly to buy what she want ed for the wedding, actually to barricade herself well in the Tower of London with men and provisions. When Mordred laid siege to the Tower she answered him "that she had liefer slay herself than to be mar ried with him." Learning at last of Arthur's actual death (or "passing"), Guenevere "stole away" with five of her ladies to Almesbury, where she became a "nun in white clothes and black", and lived in great penance, "fasting, prayers, and alms-deeds", "and never creature could make her merry", which last must have been especially severe, as Malory else where shows her possessed of a keen sense of humor and fun. She became Abbess. She had one more meeting with Lancelot; he sought her out, with thoughts of taking her back with him to his kingdom in France. Counseling him to keep his realm in peace, take a wife, and pray for his old lover, she refused to leave her sanctuary and penance.
"And therefore, lady", said Lancelot, remembering his broken resolu- tions of the Grail Adventures, "sithen ye have taken you to perfection, I must needs take me to perfection, of right." He did not see her again until, learning of her death in a vision, he and eight companions went on foot from Glastonbury to Almesbury to bring back her body for bur- ial. [Malory I, 18; III, 1, 5; IV, 2-3; V, 3, 12; VI, 10; VIII, 31; X, 49; XI, 6-9; XVIII 1-21; XIX, 1-9; XX, 3-17; XXI, 1, 7-11, etc.]
Malory does not show, except perhaps between the lines, as in the number of cases of conquered knights being sent to her and in her pre- siding at Duke Galeholt's tournament in Surluse when Arthur himself was unable to attend [X, 40-49], how good a queen Guenevere was, that part of her character being overshadowed by her affair with Lancelot. The Vulgate, which calls her, after Elaine of Carbonek, the wisest woman who ever lived [vol. II], throws more light on this and other points. That she was an excellent day-to-day administratress is evi- denced by how greatly the affairs of the kingdom slipped while Arthur banished her for two and a half years to live in infatuation with her look- alike, Genièvre, giving knights, court, and common people much cause to yearn for their wise and generous true Queen. Guenevere was under- standably reluctant to return to Arthur after Genievre's death, for, as she said, he had in effect dissolved her marriage by condemning her to death in this case, and she was well content in Surluse with a man who would make her a much better husband. Except for Elaine of Carbonek (whom she made some attempt to accept—cf. Malory XI, 7) and Elaine of Astolat, whom she did not meet alive and grieved for dead, she seems to have befriended all women, even accepting Amable as Lancelot's platonic lady love. She seems to have inspired more than common devotion in Gawaine, who lent Lancelot Excalibur when he fought to save her from Arthur's sentence in the Genièvre episode, and in Kay, who openly envied Lancelot his position as her champion.
In Malory Book VI, chapter 10, an unnamed damsel remarks to Lancelot: "It is noised that ye love Queen Guenevere, and that she hath ordained by enchantment that ye shall love none other but her." This is the only hint I remember reading that Guenevere may have dabbled in magic; I think this evidence either comes under the heading of gossip and metaphor, or that it reflects some confusion with Lancelot's mentor Viviane, the French Damsel of the Lake, who according to the Vulgate largely engineered the affair (with a bit of intriguing assistance from Duke Galeholt and the Lady of Malohaut).
A Middle English romance, The Adventures at Tarn Wadling, cur- rently available in Louis Hall's Knightly Tales of Sir Gawaine, describes an interesting meeting of Guenevere with her mother's ghost. The ghost describes her penitential suffering, the sins—especially pride—that led to it and the virtues that would have helped her avoid it, asks Masses for her salvation, and warns against Arthur's greed as the cause of his future downfall. The description of the ghost's appearance would stir professional jealousy in the heart of any monster-movie makeup artist; nevertheless, Guenevere has Gawaine at her side and, after her initial fright, questions the spirit bravely and compassionately, afterward ordering a million Masses for her.
Guenevere had gray eyes (cf. Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight) and more than one commentator has remarked that the root of her name means "white", suggesting a pale complexion and very fair blond hair. According to the Vulgate, she was also the best chess player of Arthur's court. Chrétien de Troyes, while emphasizing Arthur's generosity as a shin- ing and royal virtue, did not neglect to show Arthur's queen as pos- sessed with a goodly share of the same virtue, along with graciousness and wisdom. Consider, for example, the rich garments she gives Enide for the asking [Erec & Enide, 11. 1585-1654] and the wise counsel she offers Alexander and Soredamors after divining their unvoiced lovesickness for each other [Cligés, 11. 2249-2360]. In Perceval, ca. 11. 8174-8200, Gawaine devotes his golden tongue to about twenty-six lines in eloquent praise of Guenevere. (He does not yet know that the venerable queen inquiring about Arthur's wife is Arthur's mother.)
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